This just has to be a Purim spoof doesnt it?
An Egyptian Muslim cleric, Safwat Higa, told his television audience that the well-known Starbucks logo, featuring a female figure, is actually a representation of Queen Esther of Biblical and Purim fame, and that Starbucks should be boycotted by Muslims everywhere.
The seemingly innocent maiden whose image graces billions of coffee cups worldwide is seen to be wearing what Higa is apparently convinced is the crown of Persia.
Those familiar with the Megillah, read just this week by Jews everywhere, will probably be able to extrapolate why the imam thinks its inappropriate for this Queen of the Jews to be selling coffee, or anything else, in Islamic lands.
But are Queen Esther and the Starbucks girl really the same? To us, the crown she wears is a very generic one, rather than anything the victorious Esther might have worn. And the female herself looks a lot more hmmm mermaid-like than queenly, let alone Jewish.
Still, the imam is not the first religious observer to be offended by the fishy figure. His is not the first religiously-inspired canard to be flung at our fair lady of the coffee beans.
An American Christian group, quaintly calling itself the Resistance, also called for a boycott of Starbucks, saying that its logo depicts a woman whose attire and posture call to mind a prostitute.
Never mind that the Starbucks corporation patiently explained that the image is based on a 16th century Norse design of a two-tailed mermaid (we were right!), the Resistance was not to be deterred. It stubbornly refused to back down in its call for a boycott.
Nor, we fear, will the Egyptian cleric be similarly becalmed. He has apparently concluded that she is Esther and, therefore, no self-respecting Muslim should quaff the caffeinated beverage which she so effectively advertises.
On the other hand, could the Muslims and Christians just be joking, engaging in a new form of ecumenical dialogue honoring Purim by making their own little spoofs?
Yeah, sure.
